Believe in the Son, Who laid down His life for us.

 

Sermon for Trinity 2, June 14, 2026

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever.  Amen.

1 John 3:16-23  ¹⁶This is how we have come to know love: Jesus laid down his life for us.  And we also should lay down our lives for our brothers.  ¹⁷Whoever has worldly wealth and sees his brother in need but closes his heart against him—how can God’s love remain in him?  ¹⁸Dear children, let us love not only with word or with our tongue, but also in action and truth.  ¹⁹This is how we know that we are of the truth and how we will set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.  ²¹Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.  ²²We also receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.  ²³This then is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we love one another just as he commanded us. (EHV)

Believe in the Son, Who laid down His life for us.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

            In the last two Sundays, we considered the Holy Spirit in the Third Article of the Apostle’s Creed.  Today, again, we study the work of the Holy Spirit in the holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints.  The Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier of Christ’s people.  That means He makes us holy by bringing us to justifying faith in the Son, that He cleanses us of sin for the sake of Jesus who lived and died on our behalf, and the Spirit maintains that faith in us through His Word.  To do all this, the Spirit works in the Church through Law and Gospel to bring us to Believe in the Son, Who laid down His life for us.

The role of the law in the Christian Church has sometimes been a contentious subject.  There are many who claim that if one is a Christian, he would never sin.  They assume that knowing better, and if we are to live like Christ, we should never fail.  At the same time, some have gone so far as to say that good works are necessary for salvation, arguing that justification before God requires some effort on our part.  In opposing that error, a few fell into a ditch on the other side of the way by imagining that obedience to the law is detrimental to salvation.  In either case, experience soon shows that this desire to have perfect self-righteousness is an impossible dream for anyone.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, St. John wrote, “This is how we have come to know love: Jesus laid down his life for us.  And we also should lay down our lives for our brothers.”  Jesus Himself said, “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13)  The second great command is that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  No one in his right mind dare deny this, but how are we to live it?  The point in all of this is that we are to put the needs of our neighbors and especially our brothers and sisters in faith ahead of our own needs or selfish desires.  It will often feel difficult to live up to this, for we live in a world troubled by greed, selfishness, and worldly excess.  It is therefore quite easy to push the needs of the less fortunate on to someone else.  Let the government handle it or make the rich share more.  Yet, God’s command is for us to show that love and mercy.

Indeed, John continued, “Whoever has worldly wealth and sees his brother in need but closes his heart against him—how can God’s love remain in him?  Dear children, let us love not only with word or with our tongue, but also in action and truth.”  Most likely, you have been bombarded with requests for charitable giving.  Certainly, there are people in need all over the world.  How are we to decide what we should give or who to give it to?  Must we give away everything we possess to satisfy this command?  No doubt, John is telling us to be faithfully kind in sharing the blessings God gives us with those in need around us.  At the same time, God pours out physical blessings upon His children for their welfare and health.  We are to make wise use of His gifts.

In all things, however, it is necessary that we don’t get wrapped up in just the physical elements of the world.  We live in a country where people often assume themselves to be poor if they don’t have the latest and greatest cell phone.  In other words, our view of real poverty is often askew.  Yet, when there are real needs, we should by all means respond, so the question must be asked, what is our greatest need?

The answer to our greatest need is Jesus.  He alone has always loved perfectly.  Jesus is also the answer to our neighbor’s greatest need for we all need the righteousness Jesus lived for us and the forgiveness He earned on our behalf with His sacrifice on the cross.  This is also how good works enter the picture.  The works we do are not good in God’s eyes if they are not done out of faith in His Son.  Every other reason to do something that looks good is selfishness playing out.  St. Paul wrote, “If I give away everything I own, and if I give up my body that I may be burned but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3)  Therefore, while we never want to ignore the physical needs of those around us, our better focus is to seek the spiritual health that comes only through faith in Jesus.

John wrote, “This is how we know that we are of the truth and how we will set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” 

When our hearts and minds and eyes are focused on Jesus and what He has done for us, His Spirit dwelling within us will motivate us to do what is right.  More than that, it is the Spirit working in us that keeps us trusting in Jesus for righteousness and peace.  Good works are not necessary for our salvation, because Jesus has already accomplished everything needed to make us right with God.  Still, the Lord leaves us in this world to serve as His hands of mercy and kindness, and our good works are the evidence that faith and salvation are at work in us.  When our hope is in Jesus and not are in our possessions, it will not trouble us to part with things our neighbors need.

Plus, as John noted, God knows everything going on in our world.  He knows our weaknesses and our selfish concerns.  God has already long known when and where we would fall short of righteousness.  That is why Jesus came into our world—to be the righteousness we need.  Jesus lived His days on earth showing kindness and mercy to the weak and helpless that surrounded Him.  Note, though, that Jesus didn’t cure every trouble in the world, nor did He eliminate poverty and hunger.  That is because Jesus came first and foremost to make us acceptable to God in His eternal kingdom.  Therefore, by His perfect obedience to all God the Father desired, Jesus lived for you and me.  And again, in perfect obedience to His Father’s will, and our greatest need, Jesus willingly bore our sins and shame to the cross, so that He, the Son of God and Man, would in our place, suffer the punishment of death that the law required for sin.

Now, this does not at all allow anyone to ignore the needs of his neighbor.  God knows our needs and the needs of those around us.  He also puts those people in our lives, at times, to demonstrate to them His love for all people through His beloved children made holy by faith in Jesus.

So, what does it mean when the Word says, “If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”  It means that God has forgiven all our sins through His Son.  It means that when we feel the guilt of our shortcomings we should run to Jesus in repentance and receive that mercy that only He can give.  As He said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)  Thus, we again recognize that good works are not needed to save us.  However, they are needed for the good of those God has enabled us to help, and the Holy Spirit by His Word empowers us to care and to do.

We then read from John’s letter, “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.  We also receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.”  Because of Jesus’ sacrifice and the faith in Him that the Holy Spirit has worked in us, we can go about our days at peace, first of all at peace with God and the law, and secondly at peace with giving from the rich blessings God pours out on us so that others might be helped physically, but even more so, that our good works will lead others to seek Jesus for life and salvation.  When we trust in Jesus for forgiveness and life, any works the Spirit motivates us to do for others are “good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

Ultimately, John concluded, “This then is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we love one another just as he commanded us.”  Through faith in Christ, we are adopted into God’s family, and Jesus equates the Church with His body.  Therefore, being the body of Christ our Lord, the desire to help will be there, even when our flesh is weak.  Still, history is filled with examples and evidence that the Gospel is spread when the Christian Church surprises the world through its good works: works such as faithful obedience to the Scriptures, generosity to the hurting, hungry, and weak, kindness to strangers, faithfulness to family and to our God, freely forgiving our fellow believers without resentment or retribution, trusting God to provide what we need no matter our circumstances, and submitting to whatever this world throws against us—whether persecution, famine, or war—because we know without any doubt that our God and Savior is working all things for our everlasting good.

Dear friends, our God provides everything we need for body and soul.  So when we have opportunity to share our riches with others, remember how Jesus assures us, “Do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’  For the unbelievers chase after all these things.  Certainly your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31-33)  Our good works are certainly important in this sin damaged world, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament that has given us forgiveness of all sin, peace with God, and life everlasting in His heaven.  Therefore, trust Him; Believe in the Son, Who laid down His life for us.  Amen.

He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus—to Him the glory now and forever.  Amen.

Enlivened, saved, created, and built up in mercy.

 

Sermon for Trinity 1, June 7, 2026

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  Amen.

Ephesians 2:4-10, 19-22  ⁴But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses.  It is by grace you have been saved!  ⁶He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  ⁷He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  ⁸Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.  ¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them. … ¹⁹So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household.  ²⁰You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone.  ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  ²²In him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (EHV)

Enlivened, saved, created, and built up in mercy.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            “Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God’s wrath.” (Ephesians 2:3)  These are the words St. Paul uses to introduce us to the blessings of God’s mercy and grace.  It truly is amazing, astounding really, when you consider how we, who deserved only God’s wrath and condemnation, have been richly blessed by the mercy God shows us through the power of His Word as provided by the Holy Spirit who worked in us to bring these gifts into our hearts which caused Paul also to exclaim, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how untraceable his ways!” (Romans 11:33)  In view of the love of God for us, we celebrate how we are Enlivened, saved, created, and built up in mercy.

Now, many may ask, why would we be considered objects of God’s wrath?  Why does God count children as guilty before they have even begun to cause trouble in the world?  Why does God have the right to judge us or rule over us?  In answer, we must recognize that people polluted by sin cannot produce pure and holy offspring.  Plus, the devil has certainly continued to influence people with his lies.  Therefore, sin infects every one of us.

But, why does God have the right to judge us?  Even though so much of our modern world imagines that the world created itself, this world has become a society of fools, because regardless of what the educated elite might imagine, God created this world and everything in it and still sustains it.  Now, He has been kind enough to allow even those who reject Him to live and have opportunity to come to faith and be saved, but when the end comes, God, as Creator, will exercise His rightful authority to judge all people.

Why then, does God count even newborn babies as objects of wrath?  Again, we must recognize the truth that children are born of the same flesh as their parents and in that flesh, they inherit the same weaknesses, faults, and natural rebellion against God.  Because sin has corrupted all parts of creation, not one child has ever been conceived without sin except Jesus who is the Son of God.  Everyone else has needed to hear the Good News about Jesus and all He has done for us before having any faith or trust in the God who has given us physical life in this marvelous creation.  Consequently, David rightly observed, “Certainly, I was guilty when I was born.  I was sinful when my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5)

So, why were we all once counted as objects of God’s wrath?  Because we all have sinned against Him.  Our inherited sinful nature leads us away from trusting God.  From birth, our desires are selfish.  Even in our best moments, selfishness creeps in keeping us impure before our holy God.

All of this should make it obvious to us how amazing God’s love truly is.  St. Paul observed, But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses.  It is by grace you have been saved!”  Oh, the words we could explore here.  God is so rich in mercy, so overabundantly kind to people who don’t deserve it, that He sent His Son Jesus to live holiness on our behalf and to suffer the ultimate torment of hell in our place so that the Holy Spirit could work forgiveness and redemption in our hearts.  We remember how God had promised to give new hearts and new spirits in His people.  This is what He has done for each of us.  God shows how one sided His love for us really is, in this, though we were dead to Him in sin, He washed us clean and enlivened us through the power of His Spirit in Word and Baptism.

“He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  What an amazing promise the Holy Spirit gives us, and what God promises is always immediately as good as done.  Just as Jesus was raised from the dead that first Easter morning, so God already counts us as having been raised to new life and a new home in heaven. 

Justified (that is declared righteous) by faith in His Son, God counts His people holy, innocent, and prepared to dwell in His presence forever, not because of anything good in us, but because Jesus has already accomplished righteousness for us all.  Just as Paul was moved to write to Titus, we have this confidence, “based on the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” (Titus 1:2)

Again, all of this is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is sent by the Father and the Son to work faith and sanctification in us.  In his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed, Martin Luther wrote, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; just as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”  This is perfectly in line with what the Holy Spirit breathed into Paul as he wrote, “Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.” 

Grace is undeserved kindness that moves God to give us what we don’t deserve.  Instead of condemnation for our guilt, God charged our misses, shortcomings, transgressions, and rebellions against His own dear Son, so that by the death of Jesus, He could count us free of all guilt.  Faith is that confidence and trust in the Triune God that the Spirit grants to us through the hearing of the Gospel.  When hearing what Jesus in His great love for us downtrodden sinners has done for us, the soul sorrowing over sin and repenting of faults and shortcomings receives, through the action of the Holy Spirit, a breath of life and a stream of cleansing, life-giving water that drowns the old man of sin and raises us up for immortality.

Through the hearing of the Good News and the washing of Baptism, the Holy Spirit is building up a new temple for God crafted of the souls of the newly spiritually alive believers as living stones.  If you look at the outside walls of our church made of brick, you will see that the bricks all look pretty much one like the other, other than a slight variation in color.  However, when constructing this magnificent temple for the Lord God Almighty, the Holy Spirit takes of a wide variety of stone-dead hearts from every land and nation all over earth, gives them life, and chipping away any rough edges, then by molding and shaping, He aligns them into a perfect fit in the holy temple for our God, perfect in His design.

Consequently, Paul writes, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them. … So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household.  You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone.”  Jesus alone aligns us so that His goals become ours.  His righteousness makes us righteous and perfect in the eyes of God who commissioned this temple.  Furthermore, a person’s background, nationality, color of skin, or previous guilt do not matter, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)

It is by Jesus’ holy life and innocent death, that the Father in heaven has dealt with the sins of the world.  With a love that considered only our need for salvation, He sent Jesus to be the Holy One of God.  Then, the Father counted Jesus as sin in our place.  All our guilt piled on Jesus left us clean and holy before God.  Thus, it is in this temple of sanctified souls that the Holy Spirit continues His work of calling, gathering, enlightening, and enlivening the formerly lost and condemned sinners still roaming the earth.

Again, explaining the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, Luther wrote, “In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our sins; and at the last day He will raise up me and all the dead, and will grant me and all believers in Christ eternal life.  This is most certainly true.”   This is our hope and our salvation, that through faith in Christ, God has justified all who believe in Him.  He counts each Christian believer as righteous and holy and welcome in His presence for eternity.  None of this came because of actions we might take.  Rather, it is in the Church He has built, through the work of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, that the Lord continues to gather souls for His Father’s glory. 

From everlasting to everlasting, God is God.  From everlasting, He has been working all things so that His Church, the assembly of all true Christian believers, might be brought into His eternal glory through faith.  Only faith saves.  Faith in Christ Jesus, alone, who is “the way and the truth and the life,” (John 14:6) is what transforms the unrighteous into the righteous, holy ones of God, perfectly aligned and mortared together into a holy temple for the eternal glory of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  As holy, precious, and beautiful to God as the gems and precious stones of Solomon’s temple, from everlasting to everlasting, may we celebrate how we are Enlivened, saved, created, and built up in mercy.  Amen.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you—according to the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, . . . to God, who alone is wise, be glory forever through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

 

Sermon for Trinity Sunday, May 31, 2026

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

John 14:25-26  ²⁵“I have told you these things while staying with you.  ²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you.”

John 16:12-15  ¹²“I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.  ¹³But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.  For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak.  He will also declare to you what is to come.  ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.  ¹⁵Everything the Father has is mine.  This is why I said that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.” (EHV)

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            Last Sunday, we celebrated the Holy Spirit’s arrival upon Jesus’ disciples, which empowered them to go out telling the world the Good News of forgiveness and salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  The power working in those apostles kept those early Christian leaders going against all odds.  They faced countless difficulties and dangers in sharing the message of our Lord. But, perhaps the greatest difficulty that has ever faced Christian believers is overcoming the skepticism of the natural mind. 

With Adam’s fall into sin, he, and all generations following, lost the ability to truly understand God as He is.  Previous to his rebellion, Adam knew the Lord as His closest friend and confidant.  Eve, likewise, knew the Lord God of creation as someone who loved her unconditionally and in whom she could put all trust.  Adam and Eve together walked with the Lord in the Garden of Eden enjoying perfect peace in that paradise in which there was no sin, no death, no sorrow, no fear, nor pain.

Boy oh boy, did things ever change when temptation enticed them into wanting something more than what God had revealed.  The serpent’s lying words convinced that first couple to seek their own desires over what God the Lord offered, and ever since, mankind has been born in spiritual darkness and slavery.  Ever since that terrible day, all mankind has an inborn terror of the God who will one day judge all things, everyone included.  We know that instinctively because the law written within us tells us to be afraid of God’s judgment, but it doesn’t tell us about the reconciliation won for us by Christ.  In fact, we come into this world knowing nothing positive about our God and Creator, “For the mind-set of the sinful flesh is hostile to God, since it does not submit to God’s law, and in fact, it cannot.” (Romans 8:7)  However, in His great love for us, and knowing our desperate plight, the three persons of the One true God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have worked together to bring us peace.

On Trinity Sunday, it is the historical practice of the Church to confess our faith using the Athanasian Creed.  This creed is a very detailed summary and explanation of Who the Triune God is, clearly declaring the unity of substance while maintaining the distinctions of the Three Persons of the Trinity, as well as detailing the relationship of the human and divine natures in the One Christ.  We will sing the substance of the Athanasian Creed following this sermon.

Among the things that the natural mind finds extremely hard to accept is the role and nature of the Holy Spirit.  We stumble over the idea of a person of the Trinity that we can neither feel nor see.  Of course, we don’t presently see or feel the Father or the Son either.  Still, we have the historical record that tells about Jesus and how He lived on this earth, was killed in gruesome fashion without fault or guilt of His own.  Then, we taste and feel His body and blood in the bread and wine of His Supper.  Plus, most people generally accept that there is some divine power somewhere out there, who they can accept is the Father.

Still, the Holy Spirit remains somewhat of an enigma.  Some have contended that the Spirit is just a power or force that God sends.  Some have speculated that the Spirit is the amazing gifts the apostles were empowered to do.  Many have imagined that the Trinity is a mathematical impossibility which cannot be real; therefore, those people speculate that there is only one Person who is God, who yet has revealed Himself in three different ways throughout history.

However, being children of God through the faith the Holy Spirit has worked in us, we are convinced by this alone, that God’s Word—the Bible—is the source of all truth and therefore is where we will learn everything we need to know about the Triune God, including the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, the first thing we note is that Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as a separate person who the Father in heaven would send to His disciples.  As Jesus taught His disciples shortly before His arrest and execution, He said, “I have told you these things while staying with you.  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you.”  Furthermore, when the disciples were shocked to learn that Jesus would soon be leaving them to return to His Father in heaven, He informed them, “I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away.  For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7) Because Jesus clearly spoke these truths, those who deny the existence of the Holy Spirit as a distinct person of the Trinity, or who say that the Holy Spirit does not precede from the Father and the Son, are calling Jesus a liar or deceiver.  To this we ask, why would Jesus promise to send someone who did not exist?  Instead, we can be sure of this: The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

In recognition of His kindness, we look to Jesus’ words to understand what the Spirit is sent to do.  As Jesus was making His way toward His passion in Jerusalem, there were many, many things about His teachings that the disciples simply couldn’t yet understand.  Their natural minds still had too much hold over them.  They believed in Jesus as their Teacher and promised Savior, but they didn’t truly get what that meant.  They were still caught in the delusion that the Messiah would restore David’s earthly kingdom.  They sought earthly success rather than everlasting victory in spiritual things.

A second time Jesus told His followers, “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”  Because we all were born dead and blind in the clutches of sin, no person could ever understand nor believe in Jesus without God’s help.  However, way back in the time of Ezekiel, God’s prophet to Israel, the Lord had promised His people, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you. … I will put my Spirit within you and will cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will carefully observe my ordinances.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27) 

The deadness that had inhabited and controlled us from conception had to be overcome, but it can only be defeated through a rebirth, just as Jesus explained to Nicodemus, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)  St. Paul likewise wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God.” (1 Corinthians 2:12)  It is to bring this spiritual rebirth and new spiritual life to souls dead in sin that Jesus commands His people, “Therefore go and gather disciples from all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all the instructions I have given you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Many belligerent unbelievers may claim that the Bible doesn’t teach the Trinity or Triune God, but it is strictly their refusal to accept the actual words of the Holy Spirit that keep them in their rebellion leading to eternal death.  Again, powered by the Holy Spirit, the apostle confirms for us how the writings we trust came to be.  To young pastor, Timothy, Paul wrote, “All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, well equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)  This is exactly confirming what Jesus promised His disciples before his sacrifice and resurrection, “He will also declare to you what is to come.  He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.  Everything the Father has is mine.  This is why I said that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.”

Because “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ,” (Romans 10:17) we have absolute confidence in all of God’s Word that comes to us in the written Scriptures the Holy Spirit has provided us.  Because Jesus tells us that the Spirit brings these messages from Him and the Father, faith has grown in us to believe what the Bible says.

The Bible boldly declares, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit,” (Titus 3:5) and “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)  Baptized into this Christian faith, we can therefore know and believe with full confidence that Jesus has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:12)  With our sins forgiven and wiped from the record forever, Christ Jesus has reconciled us with the Father and made us welcome in the glories of His heavenly home.  At the same time, it is to the glory of the Father and the Son that the Holy Spirit has worked this confident faith in us.  And we know this is true, because The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen. 

 

Combining spiritual truths with spiritual words, the Holy Spirit gives life.

 

Sermon for Pentecost, May 24, 2026

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours, forever, from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16  ¹⁰But God revealed it to us through his Spirit.  For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.  ¹¹Indeed, who among men knows a man’s thoughts except the man’s spirit within him?  So also, no one else knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit.  ¹²What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God.  ¹³We also speak about these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual truths with spiritual words.  ¹⁴However, an unspiritual person does not accept the truths taught by God’s Spirit, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually evaluated.  ¹⁵But the spiritual person evaluates all things, and he himself is evaluated by no one.  ¹⁶Indeed, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Who will instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ. (EHV)

Combining spiritual truths with spiritual words, the Holy Spirit gives life.

Dear friends won for God in Christ,

            “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.”  We confess our faith in the Holy Spirit each week in both the Apostolic and Nicene Creeds.  However, what do you suppose that means?  And, who or what is the Holy Spirit?  Believe it or not, that question has been pondered and argued throughout the history of the Christian Church.  Even more so in the non-believing mind, that question is an enigma, something impossible to be understood.  Indeed, Paul wrote to the Roman congregation, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his adviser?” (Romans 11:34)

As we continue our journey through the catechism, some of the deepest questions we might ponder concern the Holy Spirit.  Our Christian faith testifies that the Spirit is a person of the Trinity, one inseparably connected with both the Father and the Son.  We will examine this truth more closely next Sunday, so today, we consider who the Holy Spirit is and what He does for us. 

So, who is the Holy Spirit?  Some people have denied that He exists, at least as a separate person.  Some would teach that the Holy Spirit is merely a power that goes out from God but that He is not truly God.  However, Jesus promised His disciples that after He left them to return to His Father in heaven, He would send a Counselor to them, a Helper to teach them all things of the mind of God. 

Here, Paul explains that all those things about God and His ways, which were hidden from the broken, sinful nature of mankind, are now being revealed though this Counselor known to us as the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, the Holy Spirit is both our Teacher and the Deliverer of God’s means of grace.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil hoping to increase in knowledge, but by their rebellion against God’s command, they became blinded to the knowledge of God’s ways, and for their lack of trust in the Lord, they were driven away from His presence.  Their fate became our fate as well.  Inherited sin separated us from God and kept us in the dark about salvation and eternal life.  Our sinful nature kept us desiring things that go against God’s plan for a holy people.  Plus, the devil, the flesh, and the world continually fight against us, tempting us with evil things, and accusing us in our faults and sometimes even in our positives.  If you doubt that last statement, remember all those times the world mocked you or others for refusing to disobey God’s commands.  Thus, by nature, we rebelled against God and consequently, we were exiled from Him.

Meanwhile, through the ancient prophet, Jeremiah, we heard God say, “I will let you find me,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring you back from your exile.” (Jeremiah 29:14)  Now we ask, how could anyone possibly know God when we can’t see Him in this life?  How can we know God when we don’t hear His voice or see His hand at work in our world?  How can we know God when we were born spiritually dead, blind, and completely unable to understand His ways?  Explaining our predicament, Paul taught that no one can know God unless God makes Himself known to that person.  However, Paul also teaches us that “God revealed it to us through his Spirit.  For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” 

Jesus had walked this earth teaching about His Father and the ways of God, but even while Jesus, the Son of God, was teaching people face to face, they failed to understand.  We couldn’t dare guess why Jesus didn’t exercise His power to bring people to faith, but even in the performance of all the miracles He did, most of the people remained unconvinced.  Therefore, we need to understand how God works the miracle of salvation.  It’s not that any of the persons in the Trinity lacked the power to change us, but the Lord works in the ways He has determined to work to prepare a faithful people to be holy citizens in His kingdom forever.

It is impossible for any of us to find God on our own, or to imagine His mercy and kindness.  Yet, there remains one Holy Spirit who reveals all things to those God has chosen.  Paul wrote, “Indeed, who among men knows a man’s thoughts except the man’s spirit within him?  So also, no one else knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit.  What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God.” 

This is what we should take from the words the Holy Spirit granted Paul to write; saving faith is worked in us when the Holy Spirit both brings the Word of salvation into our hearing and also uses that powerful Word to work faith in Jesus Christ in us.  Just as Jesus declared, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life,” (John 14:6) so the only way we can know Him is through the work of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, for as the Bible clearly explains, “So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

One of the great difficulties of the world is that “An unspiritual person does not accept the truths taught by God’s Spirit, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually evaluated.”  What this means is that the Holy Spirit cannot become known through investigations, scientific experimentation, human reasoning, nor any other work of man.  In the letter to the Ephesians, we read, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1)  Likewise, Isaiah declared, “I reached out my hands all day to a stubborn people, who are walking in a way that is not good, who follow their own ideas.” (Isaiah 65:2)  The spiritually dead cannot raise themselves to new life.  Neither does the natural person have the ability to find God, because in our sin, we make gods of ourselves, putting our own ideas above what the Lord has declared.

More and more, this teaches that we need the Spirit Jesus promised to send.  Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, our future contained only death and eternal suffering separated from God, who loved us enough to sacrifice His own dear Son and His own flesh so that we might be forgiven and brought into eternal life.  However, this news is brought to us solely through the work of the Spirit.  He is both the messenger of salvation and the source of power that works saving faith even in rebellious sinners. 

Therefore, we read again, “What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God.  We also speak about these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual truths with spiritual words.”  The Father of all grace and mercy sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil.  Jesus accomplished that perfectly with His holy, obedient submission to His Father’s will and through His suffering and death for our sins culminating in His resurrection from the grave on Easter morning.  As Jesus declared from the cross. “It is finished!”  Everything necessary to reconcile us with God had been accomplished.  Still, we needed to hear that Good News for it to make the change in us that brings life and salvation.

Therefore, Paul again explains, “But the spiritual person evaluates all things, and he himself is evaluated by no one.  Indeed, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Who will instruct him?’  But we have the mind of Christ.”  The truly spiritual person is the one who, though dead in sin, the Holy Spirit has dragged out of the muck and mire of a sinful existence and brought to life by the power of the Word the Spirit has given to the world through prophets, apostles, and evangelists. 

The psalmist once wrote, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made.  By the breath of his mouth he made the whole army of stars.” (Psalm 33:6)  By the same powerful Word, the Holy Spirit creates faith in the formerly lost so that they are given true life that is everlasting in the glory of heaven.  By the powerful Word the Holy Spirit has brought into the world, you and I were raised from dead unbelief into the glorious freedom of the child of God.  By that powerful Word connected with water in Baptism, “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11) 

Thus justified by faith, all sins are forgiven, wiped away by the blood Jesus shed on the cross.  “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.  And we rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2)

Consequently, with the Spirit working in us, we can confidently declare, Combining spiritual truths with spiritual words, the Holy Spirit gives us life.  Amen.

Now may the God of hope fill you with complete joy and peace as you continue to believe, so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.

 

Sermon for Exaudi, Easter 7, May 17, 2026

To all those loved by God…called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Ephesians 1:18-23  ¹⁸I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, just how rich his glorious inheritance among the saints is, ¹⁹and just how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe.  ²⁰It is as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  ²²God also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church.  ²³The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (EHV)

Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            A form of idolatry has crept into our culture, and I pray that it hasn’t touched us.  That idolatry is the idea that a deceased loved one now in heaven is watching over, protecting, or helping those left behind regardless of whether the deceased was a believer or not.  This idolatry seems to be offered as some sort of comfort to the mourners, yet there is no promise in Scriptures that any part of it is true.  Even faithful Christians who depart this life to dwell in glory are not spending their moments in heaven helping us.  Their focus is on the Lord who has rescued them from the darkness of sin and death.

At the same time, there is one who has died, who didn’t stay dead, but rather was raised alive again to take up a position of glory, honor, and might, through which He is continually working for our everlasting welfare—Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.

Our text is a continuation of St. Paul’s prayer for his friends in Ephesus, a prayer of the Holy Spirit that is for our help as well.  He prayed, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, just how rich his glorious inheritance among the saints is, and just how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe.”  It is so important that our eyes not be clouded by the idolatry of the world.  Almost everyone in the world seeks hope for the future.  No one truly wants to face death without some assurance that there is something more, even if that something is just a meaningless nothingness in which there is no more pain as the atheists, Buddhists, and some others imagine.  Yet, our Lord lived and died and rose again to give us so much more for the future.

First of all, our Lord Jesus has won for us an inheritance of immeasurable worth.  Considering all that God had promised him, King David sang, “Lord, you are the cup that has been given to me.  You have secured an allotment for me.  The property lines chosen for me fall in pleasant places.  Yes, a delightful inheritance is mine.” (Psalm 16:5-6)  Through St. Peter the Holy Spirit blesses us with an everlasting gift in the Lord, “By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance that is undying, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.  Through faith you are being protected by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)  Thus, through faith in Christ, Christian believers inherit with Him citizenship in the Paradise of heaven where “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain, because the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Part of the idolatry that so easily infects is a desire for this world to be instantly better.  However, Jesus uses His power and authority to bring us to faith in Him as our Savior, so that He can deliver us, His dear ones, out of this existence of sorrow, trouble, danger, pain, and death.  Seeking greater riches of either peace or prosperity in this life offers little future consolation, because there will always be new trouble right around the corner as long as sin infects the world, for as St. John wrote, “The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.” (1 John 2:17)

Therefore, so that we might be welcomed into His family as brothers and sisters forever, Jesus took away our sin, and the condemnation we deserved for it, with His holy life and sacrifice on the cross.  Then, when the Father raised Jesus from the dead, Jesus returned to His Father’s side in heaven and was granted authority over heaven and earth to use on our behalf.

The Holy Spirit wants us to know how great Jesus’ authority truly is.  He had Paul write, “It is as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”  Before He suffered and died as the Lamb of God, Jesus told His disciples, “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.  I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again.  This is the commission I received from my Father.” (John 10:17-18)  Jesus later told them why He did this; “No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

My friends, you all are Jesus’ friends, because He laid down His life to buy your freedom from sin and death and the devil’s control.  Furthermore, just as Jesus had authority to rise from the dead under His own power, so He has authority over everything and every power in this world, including raising you and me from the dead.  Though there are many seemingly powerful people and governments that often work against God’s people, ultimately, they have no authority over our eternal welfare, because Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.

Accordingly, even if the devil or any earthly authorities will make our lives on earth miserable, or even kill the body, our futures remain secure in the glory of heaven, for all people must someday stand before the Lord in judgment, but through the faith the Lord works in His people by the power of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, Jesus has already declared all who believe in Him innocent, beloved of the Father, and His own children through faith.  Thus as the Scriptures declare, “Now, if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:17)  So, we have a home in heaven.

What all this means is that there is no reason for us, in times of sadness, to seek comfort in anything other than our Savior.  Likewise, in time of great need, we have no reason to seek help from anyone but Him.  That doesn’t mean we will never ask our neighbors for help, and it certainly doesn’t mean we don’t have to help them.  Especially in the Church, we as one body will gladly and willingly work for the good of those around us, and even around the world.  Our command is to love the Lord with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves, so as we consider the love Jesus showed for us as His friends, how could we do anything less?

Still, we know we have fallen short of loving as we should.  We also are forced to admit that sometimes our hopes for the future may be misplaced while we are immersed in this idolatrous world.  Yet, that is precisely why Jesus came into the world—not to lead us to be just better behaved, but to give us the life God always intended we should have.  Then, having been made alive in Christ, we live as His body here while we wait to be reunited with Him as our Head in heaven.  You could say we become His hands and foot soldiers here on earth until He returns to judge the world.

Thus, while we wait for Judgment Day, or the day He calls us out of this world in death, we will put our full confidence in the fact that “God also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church.  The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

When God called Abraham to faith those many centuries ago, He promised Abram, “All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.” (Genesis 12:3)  Through faith in Jesus, that blessing has come to us.  Just as Jesus took humanity into the divine by becoming one of us in the flesh, so He now takes us into the divine family through the faith worked in us by the Holy Spirit through the hearing of the Good News of all Jesus has done for us and through the washing flood of Baptism.  In Jesus, all our sins have been removed and all our guilt wiped away.  In Jesus, we are made alive, and in His resurrection we have sure hope that we too will be raised never to die again.

At the same time, we know with full confidence that no matter what the devil or this world might try to throw against us, Jesus retains and uses the full authority of God to thwart anything that could truly harm us.  He doesn’t guarantee we won’t have trouble.  In fact, He promised we will because the world under the devil’s control hates us just as much as it hated Jesus. 

However, Jesus rose from the grave victorious over all things that could harm us, and seated at the right hand of the Father, He has all authority in heaven and on earth to bring us home to dwell with God forever in heaven.  Therefore, we “Give thanks to him and bless his name.  For the Lord is good.  His mercy endures forever.  His faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalm 100:4-5)  Today and forever, our eternal welfare is secure, because Christ is seated in authority to rule for our good.  Amen.

To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.  Amen.   

Jesus ascended to give us life and salvation.

 

Sermon for Ascension, May14, 2026

Grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is coming.  Amen.

Acts 1:4-11  ⁴Once, when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for what the Father promised, which you heard from me.  ⁵For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”  ⁶So when they were together with him, they asked, “Lord, is this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  ⁷He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority.  ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  ⁹After he said these things, he was taken up while they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight.  ¹⁰They were looking intently into the sky as he went away.  Suddenly, two men in white clothes stood beside them.  ¹¹They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (EHV)

Jesus ascended to give us life and salvation.

Dear beloved of the Lord,

            “He ascended into heaven.”  King David prophesied about this great day when he wrote, “You ascended on high.  You led captivity captive.  You received gifts among men, so that even among the rebellious the Lord God might dwell.” (Psalm 68:18) We confess this truth every Sunday in our Creeds, but many a sceptic might wonder why we celebrate Jesus’ ascension.  Perhaps, they ask, with all the trouble in the world and the attacks of so many enemies of our faith, wouldn’t it have been better if Jesus had stayed right here with us?  Couldn’t He be helping protect and preserve us still today?  In other words, their desire for a Savior is just like the people who wanted to make Jesus their king after He miraculously fed the five thousand.

Whenever we begin to question God’s plans, it is certain that we are missing something, lack faith or are simply missing God’s Good News.  Though some may expect that the Church would remember Jesus’ ascension with sorrow and fear, the Christian Church has always celebrated the Ascension of our Lord with great joy.  The reason is that without Jesus ascending to His Father’s side in heaven, you and I and all people would remain lost in sin and condemnation.  However, so that saving faith might be worked in us, Jesus ascended to give us life and salvation.

The first thing we must understand is that faith, forgiveness, and salvation come to us only by faith.  There is nothing we can do on our own to reach God or to deserve His reward of a place in heaven.  The Holy Spirit moved Paul to write, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)  On the first Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension, Peter declared to the crowds, “Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.  There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12)  Paul also wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, “God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses.  It is by grace you have been saved!” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Okay, so what does all this have to do with Christ’s ascension to heaven?  We go back to what Jesus told His disciples shortly before His arrest: “Now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’  Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart.  Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away.  For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:5-7)

Jesus’ work as the true God-Man was to redeem and save.  His work on earth was now accomplished.  It was time for the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, to take up His work of bringing forgiveness and salvation to a world of sinners.  This was God’s plan from the beginning.  It is why we rejoice for Jesus’ return to His Father’s side in heaven.  Jesus also confided, “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.  For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak.  He will also declare to you what is to come.  He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.  Everything the Father has is mine.” (John 16:13-15) 

This brings us back to our text this evening.  As Jesus finished His final preparations before His ascension, He told the disciples, “Do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for what the Father promised, which you heard from me.  For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”  Now, there are people who mix this word of the Lord with His command to baptize to give faith.  John’s baptism was and is valid for cleansing our souls and granting rebirth into a life of faith and salvation.  However, the baptism Jesus promises here was a pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon those chosen disciples giving them information and understanding of all that God had been promising from the beginning, as well as courage for the road ahead.  The assignment to those chosen apostles was that they would take Jesus’ message to the world for people like you and me.

Still, some insist that this Spirit baptism is what saves.  What they don’t understand is that what saves is the message of God’s Word handed down to us through those apostles and recorded for us in the Scriptures.  Yes, there were some miraculous powers that came along with this washing of the Holy Spirit, but Paul warns that those miraculous signs would fade away, just as the glory of God faded from Moses’ face after he left his meeting with God fourteen hundred years earlier.

The point for us is that Jesus’ ascension is His return to His Father’s side as the conquering King who had won the eternal victory on our behalf.  What we could never do to conquer sin and death, Jesus had accomplished for all.  In the Revelation, Jesus was again revealed to John as “The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David”—the Lamb who was slain and yet lives in victory, power, and knowledge of the future things. (Revelation 5:5)  About Jesus, the apostle Paul wrote, “God also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church.” (Ephesians 1:22)

As the Head of the Church, Jesus sees all things, knows all things, and directs all things for the good of His Church. (Romans 8:28)  Therefore, with all the power of God, Jesus, also according to His human nature, is reigning over the heavens and the earth.  Again, some may ask, then why do bad things still happen to His people?  The answer, of course, is that God desires that people be reconciled with Him and enter His heaven through faith.  If Jesus made this world to be without sin and glorious, it would be a false paradise with no believers and no one ever entering His heavenly kingdom.  Being precise, this would be submission to Satan’s schemes when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness.

Therefore, while the Lord allows us to experience hardships, pain, suffering, loss, and even death in this world, Jesus, through the Spirit in Word and Sacrament, is building up our faith in Him as our Savior so that we may live and reign with Him in the mansions of His heavenly Father.

As the Head of the Church, Jesus had to return to His Father’s side because where the Head goes, so the body will follow.  Though we may not always understand the plan, Jesus is working all things for our eternal welfare.  Furthermore, His promise remains true that no matter where we are on earth, or what conditions we must face here, He is with us, and not just in wishful thinking, but through the power of His Word and His Holy Spirit.  Though we no longer see Him physically, He is with us in worship, in danger, in good times, and in trials and pains.  Just as the Lord led Israel out of Egypt and though the wilderness after delivering them from slavery, so He leads us through the wilderness of this troubled world, so that trusting in Jesus by faith, He may lead us into eternal Paradise in heaven.

On that last day Jesus spent with His disciples in person, they asked about His kingdom, and Jesus enlightened us with His answer, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  It is not given for us to know how our times will end, or when Jesus will return.  Yet, the power of His Spirit in the Word allows us to see Jesus as He is—the Son of God who gave His life on a cross to redeem and save us from sin and condemnation.  Furthermore, God has not left us without hope.

“After he said these things, he was taken up while they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight.  They were looking intently into the sky as he went away.  Suddenly, two men in white clothes stood beside them.  They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’”  We are not left hopeless, because Jesus never fails to keep His promises, and He has promised to return and take us to be with Him where He dwells. (John 14:3)

There are warnings in the Scriptures concerning Judgment Day against those who do not believe.  As He was led to the cross to be crucified, Jesus quoted the prophet Hosea in warning those who grieved His sacrifice, “Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’” (Luke 23:30)  Concerning His return on the final day, Jesus had already instructed His disciples just as the angels promised the people on the mountain as He rose to His Father’s heaven, “They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  But when these things begin to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.” (Luke 21:27-28)  On Ascension, we rejoice because now our redemption and ascension to Jesus’ side is near.  This is the Lord’s promise to you and me and all who believe in Him as their Savior and Redeemer.  We have a secure future and an everlasting home in heaven, because Jesus ascended to give us life and salvation.  Amen.

May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.  The Lord be with you all.  Amen.